Better Casting Needed

you're right. the makeup people just slapped light colored face powder on halle and raven so to me they looked more ashy than anthing. they should've cast jennifer beals or kristen wilson, who are mixed but look white.

I agree with what you said about what people would probably say. But still.

You're wrong about her ethnicity though. If you read the book, which the movie is based on, then you'd see that I'm right. They got it wrong in the movie. Or rather, they associated those characteristics with the wrong person. According to the book the ethnic makeup that they associated with her mother is actually her husband's, Alec Haley.

i agree. i mean she is black and white both,and i think by having BLACK ACTRESS who is like HALLE skin was fine,i love it.Have it on again right now late night.and i m also thinking that RAVEN look as she did,a beautiful bi-racial pretty lil black girl
and i love the movie period,so i m goin back to watch the CAST WAS PERFECTO!i and i really luv easter and tim daly beautiful,
but sad love story... adios.


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Para,
RedheadBMWBella..
Love QUEEN's Tim Daly,Jasmine Guy,Halle Berry... and ROOTS.
Love Bev Hills 90210 por vida...Sanford and Son,All mi soaps...
Love Good Times,What's Happenin',Roseanne,Cold Case,Little House on the Prairie,
Investigation Discovery (I.D.)channel and good drama movies...

it wasn't political correctness it was the fatc to get people to watch you have to use knwon actorts that's the way the business is always done why you think Dream girls was basically an all star cast......but jenifer beals would have been great if se wasn't so old at the time maybe if thsi was made not to long after flash dance

What a shame that because of political correctness, they had to cast a black actor

I loved her in it too. And its not like a white person hasn't played a black person before.

@decroissance: You made some very valid points. Her acting was so good until I just resigned to the fact that the real Queen was whiter looking and enjoyed the movie. The real Queen was 1/4 black meaning she was lighter than most mixed people.
I hear that Jennifer Beals would have been perfect but the thing is would she have been able to pull off what Halle Berry did? Halle Berry made this movie. She brought a lot of emotion into this movie and made the viewers feel this character's struggle. It was hard to keep a dry eye while watching this movie. Halle Berry did a phenomenal job bringing out this character despite the fact she does not meet the physical description. I do feel Haley was looking more at talent then actual physical description.

I think Halle's makeup was enough to suggest Queen's lightness. Audiences can fill in the rest when the acting is excellent. I fully support this casting choice.

What I found hardest to swallow was Ann Margaret as the matriarch. She so often played on her looks when younger, I had a hard time accepting her in a role with more gravitas.

I think it could also be down to the make up of the time. In Cloud Atlas Halle Berry's make up is much better and she does almost pass for a white lady so with today's make up you could still cast someone with her features.

Queen was described in the book as being meek and mousy and naive with big brown eyes and fair skin. I think Halle was all those things except fair.

Also the thing about Queen that people forget is that sometimes she passed and sometimes she didn't. There were a lot of characters who knew straight away that she was Mulatto. I think Paula and Rashida would be much better suited as Alice because it was made clear in both the book and the film that she really could pass.

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